Decreasing undesirable absorbed radiation to the intestine after administration of radium-223 dichloride for treatment of bone metastases

[Ra-223]RaCl2 is the first alpha-particle emitting radiopharmaceutical to be used for castration-resistant prostate cancer patients with bone metastases because of its excellent therapeutic effects. [Ra-223]RaCl2 is excreted via the intestine into feces, and some is absorbed from the intestine into the blood, which may be undesirable in terms of the exposure to radiation. Recently, we showed that a complex of myo-inositol-hexakisphosphate (InsP6) with zinc is a useful decorporation agent against radiostrontium. In this study, we hypothesized that Zn-InsP6 could bind to not only strontium but also to radium, and could inhibit the absorption of radium from the intestine. In in vitro binding experiments, Zn-InsP6 showed a high binding affinity for radium. In in vivo biodistribution experiments by intravenous injection of [Ra-223]RaCl2 after treatment of Zn-InsP6, mice treated with Zn-InsP6 showed significantly lower bone accumulation of radioactivity (34.82 +/- 1.83%Dose/g) than the mice in the non-treatment control group (40.30 +/- 2.78%Dose/g) at 48 h postinjection. These results indicate that Zn-InsP6 bound radium in the intestine and inhibited the absorption of radium into the blood. Therefore, the insoluble Zn-InsP6 complex has high potential to decrease the side effects of [Ra-223]RaCl2.